


Falling Into Your Arms

by rebelmeg



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Pepperony - Freeform, Post-Avengers (2012)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 09:43:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14615592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelmeg/pseuds/rebelmeg
Summary: The battle in New York is over, the shawarma has been consumed, and now all there is for Tony to do is to fall into Pepper's arms.





	Falling Into Your Arms

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ShinpeiHolic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShinpeiHolic/gifts).



> ShinpeiHolic dangled a carrot and I jumped for it! It's all her fault!
> 
> So here, have some soft hurt/comfort Pepperony with a tablespoon of angst.

Who knew that shawarma could be so tasty and yet sit in the stomach like a lead ball after you finished eating it?

Although, that was far less about the shawarma and far more about the fact that Tony was flying home over the wrecked remains of New York. Even several hours later, the dust and smoke from the fight was still in the air, and emergency personnel was out everywhere. Tending to the wounded and patching up what they could as far as damages to buildings and roads and... well, everything.

As he closed in on the Tower, the huge letter A that was all that was left of his name was actually lit, escaping the battle unscathed and shining like a beacon in the last rays of the sunset.

Tony saw her standing on the ragged, partially destroyed remains of his landing pad, still as a statue except for her strawberry blonde hair waving in the breeze as she watched him approach. His Pepper.

The landing wasn’t graceful, he hurt everywhere and that did not translate to elegant movements while still carrying the weight of a metal suit that wasn’t running at 100% efficiency anyway. He wasn’t sure if the disassembly walkway would even work, he had no idea what kind of damage had been done since he’d exchanged the older armor and suited up in the new one after being _pitched out the fricking window_.

He didn’t have a chance to check it out, though. The second he landed, Pepper was running towards him, all but leaping at him in order to get her arms around him. He retracted the helmet (with its hastily patched up faceplate so he could fly home) and let it fall to the ground as he wrapped his arms around her. Holding her to him, even with the suit in the way, was the first thing that didn’t feel wrong after he’d woken up on the ground to the sound of the Hulk roaring.

“When I saw that missed call notification…” She whispered, her voice broken, and Tony closed his eyes, tucking his face into her hair.

“I’m so sorry, Pepper.”

“Get out of that thing so I can hug the rest of you,” Pepper demanded roughly in his ear, pulling back and sniffing.

Pressing one more kiss to her lips, Tony squeezed her hand gently with his gauntlet and stepped onto the robotic walkway. It came to life, which proved there had to be at least one deity out there who loved him, and within seconds he was free of the suit. Pepper had walked alongside him and was waiting with open arms when he lifted his foot free of the last metal boot. He all but fell into her, sighing at the way she bore his weight and stayed steady against him.

She was the strongest person he knew. And he just melted into her as she held him up, keeping him standing as he let out a slow breath.

The fight was finally over.

She held him like that for… well, it could have been a minute or an hour, he kind of drifted a little bit as they just stood there and breathed together. Finally, she drew back just enough to press a kiss to his temple. “Come on. Let’s go inside.”

She made sure he was steady on his feet before leading the way, staying right at his side with an arm wrapped around his waist.

“Wow, I could really use a drink.” Tony let himself lean on her a little, keeping an arm around her shoulders as they entered the building, walking carefully around broken glass from the previously floor-to-ceiling windows and chunks of broken flooring.

“How about some first aid and a shower instead?”

Not quite the same allure as a stiff shot of scotch, but hey, he could compromise. “If the shower even still works. My floor looks like it was mined for gold, what the hell did that horny bastard do in here?”

Pepper actually snorted out a laugh, obviously catching his reference to that ridiculous helmet Loki favored. “We’ll figure something out.”

To Tony’s surprise, the hot water was still functioning in their actually completely intact master suite, and Pepper got the shower going while Tony peeled himself out of the grimy clothes he’d been wearing for what felt like a year. It wasn’t easy, he was starting to get stiff as well as sore, and taking his Black Sabbath shirt up over his head was particularly unpleasant.

“Oh, Tony!”

He looked at her in alarm, then at himself when he saw the expression on her face. Oh, yeah, well, he did look a little bit like an eggplant with all those bruises.

There were tears in Pepper’s eyes when she came over, her gentle fingers brushing soft as a breeze over his battered skin. “I hate that you still get so banged up even inside the suit.”

“You know, I’m not fond of it either.”

Tony winced when she gingerly touched a huge, blooming bruise on his left side, and she made a murmuring sound of sympathy.

“What happened?”

He shrugged a little. “That one I don’t remember. Must have been after the… wormhole…”

Fragments of black and silence and horror pulled at the edges of his mind, making a cold sweat break out all over him. He mentally backpedaled away from that as fast as possible, touching the enormous bruise and relishing the little burst of pain that drew his attention.

“The… the Hulk,” Pepper said quietly, looking like she was struggling just as much as he was not to fall into her own mental nightmare. “He caught you. The footage wasn’t very good, but someone got it on film. He snatched you right out of the air as you fell, took out ten floors of a skyscraper to slow you both down.”

They both looked at the bruise, and the probably bruised ribs underneath.

Unpleasant, but Tony would take that over falling to his death any day.

“Gotta get that Jolly Green Giant a gift card or something. You think he’d like Starbucks?”

Pepper smiled, in a broken sort of way, shaking her head a little as she carefully smoothed her hands over his shoulders. “Come on. Shower. First aid.”

“You joining me?” Tony waggled his eyebrows, but both of them knew he didn’t mean it that way. Neither of them was up for a romp at the moment.

She did join him, after pulling her hair up, and Tony’s eyes fell closed under the hot spray, his sore muscles loosening as Pepper washed his hair, scritching her nails over his scalp just the way he liked. Once dried off and dressed in pajamas, she sent him to the bed and dug around in the bathroom cabinet for a minute, making a sound of triumph when she found what she was looking for.

“I told you we’d use this.” She said with a slight smile, sitting down on the bed and popping open the first aid kit.

“To be fair, I did say it would probably be you using it on me instead of me using it on me.”

That faint smile stayed on her face, a little too ghost-like to be considered real, as she busied herself picking out a bandage for the abrasion on his forehead.

She patched up everything she could, and even insisted on wrapping his ribs with several long elastic bandages. “It’s more to make me feel better than you, it hurts just looking at that bruise. And I know how you feel about Motrin, so,” Pepper held up a packet of generic ibuprofen, a little bit of a smile, a real smile, dancing at the edges of her mouth.

Tony couldn’t help but laugh, even as it made him grimace with pain. “How do you remember all the crap that I say?”

She leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to his lips. “Because it’s you.”

She got up and retrieved a bottle of water from the mini fridge (in their room at Tony’s insistence, he kept snacks in there too), as Tony looked out the huge windows. Twilight had deepened into night, and there was even a faint scattering of stars in the dark sky. The sight sent a chill right down his spine, and he scooted to the edge of the bed as Pepper came back. He held his arms out and drew her between his knees, needing her close. He rested his forehead against her stomach and took as deep a breath as he could manage, just… needing a moment. Needing her.

As she so often did, Pepper seemed to know exactly what he needed, and she just held him as close as he wanted, running her fingers through his damp hair.

“I’m so glad I didn’t lose you today.” She whispered, and Tony could hear the tears in her voice.

“I am too. You almost did there, for a minute.”

He didn’t let himself dwell on that for long, the looming terror of those moments in space ready and waiting to overwhelm him if the gave them the chance. “Bed?” (Part of him wanted to go to his lab, put himself to work and forget things that way, but he knew she wouldn't stand for it. She wasn't going to let him out of her sight.)

“Bed.” Pepper affirmed, and it was the work of a moment to get them both between the expensive sheets, wrapped up in each other’s arms and finally able to rest.

Tony sighed, and just… completely sank into Pepper’s embrace. The mattress was doing a pretty good job of cradling all the parts of him that were still aching as he waited for the meds to kick in, and she held the rest.

She was running her hands over his back and shoulders in light, gentle patterns, her fingers a soothing touch that grounded him and kept him in the moment. There was so much lurking in the back of his mind, tendrils of terror waiting to snake out and seize him and never let him go. But just for right now… they waited for another time. They waited while he drifted towards sleep with his Pepper’s soft touch on his skin.

They’d be back another time, but they'd leave him alone for tonight.


End file.
